.png&width=36&height=36&type=webp)
University of North Carolina Athletics
UNC-Maryland Quotes
February 3, 2009 | Men's Basketball
Feb. 3, 2009
Recap |
Box Score |
Notes |
Photo Gallery 
UNC head coach - Roy Williams (vs. Maryland - 2/3/09)
Opening Statement
"It was a heck of a show. I said a lot of times this year that we can really shoot the ball and we shot the dickens out of it tonight. But, I don't like giving up 91 points to say the least. It was an up and down game. I was frustrated at the end and I did the smartest thing I've ever done with my team and told them I wasn't going to say much. Because right now, I'm a little too frustrated, yet it's an ACC win and you ought to be daggum happy out that; that's the bottom line. In this league, you better happy every game you win and it was impressive, us shooting the basketball like that. It wasn't very impressive on the defensive end of the floor, but we made a bunch of shots. You know, Wayne Ellington, I told him in the locker room "34 points, that's fantastic; nine rebounds, that's fantastic; zero assists and four turnovers, that's not fantastic." But, that's part of it. Ty's six assists and zero turnovers. But, there's a lot of stats when the score's 108-91, there's a lot of good things and a lot of frustrating things, but that's basketball."
On what he didn't see from this weekend tonight
"Early in the game we weren't sprinting back, talking, and picking up; basically the essentials that you have to have to start the defense. We kept trailing the men in low and couldn't keep the ball out of the lane. It says they have 18 offensive rebounds, I thought they had 88. There were two different plays I remember plain as day. We'd knock the ball loose from a dribbler and they'd come up with it and lay it up. I don't know, I'm anxious to look at it on tape to see if we're running out thinking that we've got the ball and seeing if we're running out early to get going on offense, or if they out-hustled us, or if the ball just bounced in their direction. But, there's a lot of frustrating things. But, I told the kids, it's an ACC win, we're as happy as we can be, and we caught Gary's club on a night where we made a bunch of shots."
On Marcus Ginyard missing the rest of the season
"We've been talking on and off about it. My focus was getting him healthy to play this year, but you get to a certain point where it's not what's best for the young man and I think that's where we got to. We did consciously make sure that we were within the guidelines and that's when we stopped him, but it wasn't 100% sure by any means at that time, because I wanted him to come back and play and I think he wanted to come back and play. So, the focus was trying to rehab and get him to the point. All of a sudden, you wake up, it's February 2nd and you've got eight regular season games left and it's just not what's best for the young man. And the biggest factor, I don't care how you put it, the biggest factor is he still has pain and that's the bottom line."
Maryland Head Coach Gary Williams Postgame Quotes
Opening Statement
"We shot 54-percent the first half and the rebounds were pretty even, but we were down 16 points when Carolina's got 60. I think our defense wasn't ready to play and against a team like Carolina, if you give them any inkling at all that you're not ready to play, I think they're really good at taking advantage of that situation. In other words, they seize the opportunity and just really go after you. We played a bad first half defensively and it really cost us. We scored, but we couldn't stop them obviously."
On Carolina's impressive 3-PT FG shooting
"I don't remember really, you know somebody gets hot once in a while and makes a couple, but not that many. To their credit, they made them, but they had a lot of open looks. It's a combination usually of us not covering and then them making the shots when they had them. There's no flukes either - they shot it well."
On Maryland's defensive strategy switch
"We switched to zone with the idea that maybe it would get them out of their rhythm, we've done that before this year and it has worked, but they continued to make [shots]. The biggest thing we did whether it was man or zone, we didn't fly shooters. We kind of stayed on the floor when you have to get up in their face. We didn't do that and they're too good to give them those kinds of looks."
On Cliff Tucker returning to action
"I was proud of him. He didn't play last game and we talked the last couple of days. I was really glad to see what he did. He's a good kid. He works hard. He got a little bit behind this year after the start of the season, but after what he did tonight, he has certainly pushed himself back into the rotation. I'm glad to see that."
On 91 points not being enough to win
"I've done that before somewhere along the line. The thing is, when you get behind like that, you really have to gamble and you really have to push your offense. I'm here to win the game. I don't care if they beat us by 40 if at least we try to win the game. And I thought we tried to win the game in the second half. "
UNC Player Quotes vs. Maryland
Wayne Ellington:
On the team's perimeter shooting:
It feels great. I was pretty much in the zone the whole game. We came out and we were hitting shots. We just kept it rolling. We got some easy buckets tonight from the inside as well, but from the perimeter tonight we were just rolling.
On his own shooting success:
I think I was in the same zone that I was in against Miami earlier, a couple games ago. I just finally got it going and it felt good. As soon as I saw a couple go in, I feel like all of them are going in.
asically, having faith in my training and not losing any confidence and continuing to shoot my shot.
Danny Green:
On Adjusting to losing Ginyard and Graves:
"We don't feel much pressure. It's just adjustments really. Everybody just has to raise their game another level. Ed's been doing well. He's going to have to raise his game a little bit. Deon, myself, Ty, Wayne, Tyler we're going to have play a little more. We're going to have to be conditioned to play more. When we get tired- a game like tonight is up and down, a lot of running and a lot of scoring - we're going to need subs. It's not much pressure, it's adjustments.
"It's just adjustments. It's nothing new to this team. We've always had people down or out, a situation where someone has been sick or hurt. We just have to keep doing what we've been doing in the past, adjust. We have two guys out right now. Everyone just has to pick up their game."
On UNC's timeout and the defensive effort:
"Coach didn't really have much to say. He didn't want to talk to us. Basically we were talking to each other, "we've got to get back". Sometimes it hard when it's a scramble or everyone is crashing the boards on offense. We have to run back, that's the main thing. If you're focused and you're into the game mentally you should be able to play both ends of the floor. Tonight we did a great job offensively but on the defensive end of the floor we didn't really do as well as we wanted to."
